You know what the real debate is now about teachers among people who know the research? It's whether teachers are the single most important factor in the success of students or maybe the second most after parents and home life.

Guess what? There is no debate about school board members. Everybody knows what they are -- self-important meddlers who ran for election because they hope to make money off public education or because their own kids got kicked out of school.

And yet the gutless, feckless, spineless Dallas school district suspended teacher Joseph Drake last week because he sent a pissed-off email to school board member Edwin Flores, a lawyer, honestly expressing anger over public remarks Flores had made about teachers needing to work a longer day. Do you mean to tell me there is a lawyer in this world so thin-skinned he can't handle a little honest criticism?

This was all about a move now being considered by the district to expand the teacher work-day by 45 minutes to allow for more "collaborative planning," meaning time away from students, time out of the classroom, time away from grading papers, time away from dealing with the individual smart kid or the individual kid who is troubled or challenged.

Did the school board make any effort at all to find out how much time teachers are already spending to accomplish their work? No. If you know a public school teacher, have you ever known that person not to bring home tons of grading and paperwork at night and on weekends -- unpaid work that sucks time away from family and health?

Flores is huge on lawyerly snide-talk. It was a snide remark meant to convey that Dallas teachers are lazy -- this in an atmosphere of Draconian cuts already having dire unforeseen consequences in classrooms, imposed last year by the Legislature at the urging of Governor Rick Perry's regime.

Oops.

Drake, the pissed-off teacher, told Flores: "People like you destroy morale, beat us down into the ground, and make us wish we had been greedy enough to go into the business world as yourself."

So for that, this father of six living on fifty-five grand a year is suspended with pay pending an investigation of wrongdoing.

Is this still America? Can an American not express honest criticism of an elected official without being subjected to suspension and investigation?

That's why I love this sick-out idea. The person going by the name Anonymous is calling for teachers to call in sick on Leap Day, February 29. It's an attempt to show the board that teachers are sick and tired and not going to take it anymore.

Bring it on.

Teachers will never get the respect they must have, and kids will never get the teaching they need, until the teachers teach some manners to the school board. Calling in sick is a good start.

There are a zillion ways teachers can take the district's own stupid bureaucratic rules and shove them down its throat. Look at cops, for example: A few years ago when the city council threatened to force cops to arrest everybody who looked vaguely homeless, their commanders warned the council that the cops underneath them would react by obeying.

Cops are like teachers: Under the right-to-get-punked laws in Texas, cops can't organize honest strikes. But they can obey. Obey and obey and obey.

If the council disrespected them by telling them how to do their work down to the last detail, their commanders warned, the cops would obey the order to spend their time busting winos for being winos all day long, seven days a week. They would do nothing but arrest vagrants, cart them down to the jail and spend the rest of their shifts checking them in.

Good cops need to be trusted to know how to apportion their time. You want to take that trust away and order them to spend their time the way you think they should? Great. That's just what they will do, while hold-ups, home invasions, car wrecks and assaults go untouched.

That's what DISD teachers should do. Obey these bastards into the dirt. Do all their paperwork -- all of it. Very carefully. Attend all of their meetings. Take copious notes. Ask questions. Get there early. Stay late.

Grind them to a halt.

And, by the way, stay anonymous. Use Twitter, Facebook, the same technology that fueled the Arab spring, to make sure they can't punk you the way they did Drake. That stuff is right there at your fingers, better than a Molotov cocktail.

Do it. You're right. They're wrong. They need an intervention, big-time. Send them to the alternative school board school.

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JIm, I love you, man, but I so disagree with just about eveything you suggested here.

NO!!! A sick out would make the teachers look bad. WE are not at fault here. WE work our asses off. To try to circumvent the work stoppage law---and a sick-out is covered in it, by the way, would burn up a lot of public support.

We need to explain to the public who is now AWARE of the heavy-handed tactics that many of us---me, too, have all endured for YEARS. Just like with non-violent social protest, teachers must make sure THEY are in the right on all issues. Trust me, the Gang of Five vets over there have handed us a doozy to make hay off of.

And sorry, no sane, career-minded teacher is going to act on some "anonymous" leader. Some people love me, some hate me, but by damn, all know where I stand on DISD issues. They know where they can find me to ask for information about education issues.

You also have no idea what you are talking about. "Grind them to a halt? How, exactly? Paperwork we do is to be done on time, or we get into trouble. WE get penalized. WE are bound to deadlines. You cannot protest with deadlines in education.

And get early or stay late to what? Most of their meetings are held during the day, the board briefings? I go to most reg board meetings. I speak at least 3-4 times a year, plus meet with trustees whenever I can find them. I take "copious notes."

To give advice to stay anonmyous is exactly WRONG, Jim. By all means, it is time that MORE teachers stood up, the way I have--and others have. The problem is not that we stand up, it is that our asses are left hanging in the wind by our own teachers.

Recall the first RIF, four years ago? Fewer than 250 of 19,000 employees showed up to protest. That was about 1%--and it was about their own fricking jobs!!! People need to take a cue from the civil rights era. You get up there, you show your face---and remember, if we are in a group, they can't fire us all---as long as we are within the law.

A previous sup't, a few years back, used to send me basically threatening letters because I dared to speak up. I wrote back, with a cc to my union, that I served honorably in the US Army to preserve and protect the Constitution. I told him that I could bring up these threats to the media--and then what would he do? He backed down.

DISD has devolved to nothing more than a political patronage system that operates off of state money "earned" by the attendance of "students". Any "education" that occurs is of secondary concerne to the people with their snouts in the trough.

The best thing for the teachers to do is quit en masse and start their own charter school...cut the money off and DISD will blow away in the wind.

Next we need to organize a "Sick Out" for the students. A whole day of no pay for all of DISD would be annoying to say the least. When you treat teachers like this, it's not favor to the students. It's the students who are the big losers, and they need to protest.

Enough with this education talk! Do you people know how long it took for me to get my double cheeseburger, fry, and large coke tonight? Well, i'll tell ya....TOO LONG:( :( To make a long story short. We need more kids in the service industry(burger flippers, fry guys/gals, etc)...not getting some fancy schmancy education! Shit! I've got fries to eat and they're all ready cold enough!

“Guess what? There is no debate about school board members. Everybody knows what they are -- self-important meddlers who ran for election because they hope to make money off public education or because their own kids got kicked out of school.” Amen!

Edwin Flores is a part of the problem. He hides behind children that the DISD is suppose to serve much like the Taliban hides behind innocent civilians while they do their evil deeds.

"Right to work" may be crap, but it's exactly why DISD doesn't need to "extend hours". After only 4 years of teaching, I feel like it is IMPOSSIBLE to do a half-way decent job without putting in more than 8 hours a day. Thus, DISD should have more than enough avenues to get rid of teachers who are not putting in the time that's necessary for this job.

Very few teachers are offended by the notion that this job requires a 40 hour work week. Most would actually laugh at that notion, as we put in a lot more 50-60 hour weeks than we do 40. What's offensive is that DISD Admin, after years of stagnant pay and job insecurity, is pointing at the teachers for what is (not) happening in the classroom. Here's a thought - go into an underachieving high school classroom, bully all the students, tell them they're not doing enough, then tell them that because they continue to fail, all homework assignments for the remainder of the year have been increased in length arbitrarily. You'll have underachieving students push away further, and those who have taken care of their business will likely be frustrated and _LESS_ encouraged to do what they have been.

I thank God that I was lucky enough to get a job in a suburb rather than DISD, because I just can't see how a higher-stress situation and teacher blaming is going to fix a problem that is rooted in years of piss-poor administration. If the "8 hour day" change was made alongside changes to administration and principals, that'd be one thing - but the way DISD went about things was to simply throw their teachers under the bus.

As this whirlwind of events have happened I tried to summarize it all, as of 30 minutes ago, at http://schoolarchiveproject.bl... complete with the web site for the protest and other links for legislation we also need to focus on.

Next year we must have over 100,000 of us demonstrating in Austin so that the legislature realizes that our children are the priority in Texas.

Schutze, you know perfectly well why the teacher was put on admin. leave. And, it had absolutely nothing to do with any of his opinions aired. It was because he went too far when he posted the home address of Flores. That, single act was why he was placed on leave and it had nothing to do with "punishing" him. It was solely done to allow time to ensure the man was not threatening or instigating anything. Elected officials need to take extreme caution to ensure their safety. (Gabrielle Giffords, et al)

Your article is so slanted and is filled with supposition and misinformation. You wrote that article 100% biased.

I suggested you go take a meeting with Mike Morath. I firmly believe you will see that he is not a "self-important meddler". He sacrifices his time and his money for no financial gain or self motivation. He gives of himself solely to contribute for the betterment of DISD.

One of the reasons why the teacher hours were extended was BECAUSE some teachers work lots more hours, coming in early and staying late. While others just arrive before their class and leave immediately thereafter. This puts more demand on the few that do put in more hours. Now, with the increased hours, all the teachers will be required to come in a little before their class and stay a little after, thereby reducing the workload of the ones that were doing more.

Now, my turn to make a snide remark: Where did this father of six get it in his head that he could support six kids with a top earning capacity of $55k? Maybe he should have stopped at two.

Teachers would also do well to make an example of Flores by doing everything they can to generate $, support, and votes to his announced opponent in the upcoming election. Defeating one trustee alone won't be a sea change in and of itself --- but it would amount to a warning shot fired across the other trustees' bows. The next election target the NEXT Trustee stupid enough to antagonize the group closest to the parents/voters on a daily basis. Doubtful a third Trustee would be stupid enough to "pull an Edwin."

I thought Ronald Reagan beat down these bastards and tore down their walls. Now they've just infiltrated Dallas through its school district. It seems neither teacher, parent or student are too happy with this district and it all keeps aiming at the same group of lunatics getting put at the top. Hey, it's time to come up with new options. Grand Prairie is advertising good times aplenty.http://www.gpisd.org/LinkClick...

Everyone angry about what is happening to our teachers and students must contact their legislators who are most responsible for what is happening. The ones who voted “Yea” to Senate Bill 1 (SB1) are the ones are responsible for the $5 billion in educational budget cuts that have led to this crisis. We must focus on those who voted to pass SB1 which was the budget bill that cut the educational budget. Generally speaking "Yea" votes for SB1 were along party lines, but that is not always true. SB1 was passed 6-28-11 in special session. The final votes are online. Go to the SB! actions page at http://www.legis.state.tx.us/B... and click on the most recent votes tabs for both the House and Senate at the top of the page. You will see the names of those legislators responsible, the "Yea" votes. We need to be calling their offices now asking for the reasoning behind their votes. Then get ready for the next election, attend campaign gatherings, and ask questions. Our children need advocates to stand up for them!

Absolutely. ASAP for the children of Dallas. Its unbelievable what they've gotten away with for so long, completely unchallenged.--and at the cost of almost a whole generation's education. ...But I think their day may be coming. When families have choices and vote with their feet, some measure of accountability will return. Charters like KIPP, Uplift, Harmony etc. are providing those choices. If DISD can't deliver, those empty buildings should be made available to the public charter schools. They'd find a way to put them to good use.

The public is no longer blaming DISD teachers. The public, thanks to blogs like this, sees the excessive testing, the corrupt land deals, the crappy written-by-someone's-goddaughter curriculum, the school closings, and the shoddy bond work.

Teachers are starting to fight back. Recently there was some mandatory go-to-a-training-so-a-bureacrat-can-keep-their-useless-job AND NO ONE WENT.

The public, from Bonham to Deep Ellum, sees what is going on with the school district. The greedy and corrupt have stolen a school district, wrecked neighborhoods, and killed middle-class growth and spending.

In all of my years of teaching, 24, I never took a summer off or worked a 40 hour week. I never felt that I had to carry the workload for other teachers. I was envious of those teachers who were organized enough not to have to come in an hour before class and stay several hours after school just to stay ahead. The only workload assigned to a teacher before and after school that could possibly affect another teacher is bus duty or cafeteria duty. Neither of these duties affect academics or another teacher's workload.Stop blathering about stuff you know NOTHING about. You are simply stirring up trouble.Shame on you!

HE published Flores' address? Look, PR, the fact is that Flores' addresses are already published. They are public: go here http://www.dallascad.org/Searc... and type in Flores Edwin. His addressses are not private or secret or personal. They are public information. How can the guy be discplined for publishing something that is already public? Does somebody here not know the difference between public and private? If so they need to take a smart pill.

He didn't post the home address of Flores. He posted the address of property that Flores owns. He found said property on DCAD, so the information was public already. Anyone who wanted to find it could find it.

I happen to agree with the statement about the poor family planning exhibited by the teacher. To Bbetzen, if you read the teacher's email to Flores, the teacher is the sole breadwinner in the family, and the family is already struggling to pay bills. I'm sorry, but 6 kids on 55k/yr in Dallas in the 2000's is not the same as 14 kids back in the day. It shows a lack of fiscal planning at the least, and perhaps a complete misunderstanding of family finances as a whole.

While I agree with you about the dedication of many DISD board members, and strongly believe this was simply a very ill-advised decision, I was going to ignore you until your last two sentences. That is a very bigotted statement. I came from a very large family and have over 114 first cousins. There is nothing wrong with a large family. Some people just do not spend money like you apparently do. His family is at or above the median income.

If you go to the CIA web site you can see very tragic facts about our nation that remind me of such statements for some reason. On the page at https://www.cia.gov/library/pu... you will find a measurement of the distribution of income called the Gigi Index. The closer it is to 50 the more very poor and very rich that exist in a nation. In 1997 that measurement in the U.S. was 40.8, not a good measurement. By 2007 it was up to 45, getting worse in our nation where the poor are taxed more than the rich. I realize it may not be logical but somehow your statement reminds me of someone who would gloat over being one of the few rich.

Edwin's snarky, belittling remarks to teachers were in full force years ago. The only connection to Rick Perry is that both are arrogant piss ants. Remember the smartass Flores's comment, 'sue us, oh yeah, you can't," or his remark that the board could violate policy any time it wished with "it's our policy, we can violate it if we want.'

The taxpayers have been violated by Edwin smirking while Hinojosa and the Citizen's Council stooges blew a hole in the budget that has never been sealed. Austin is not laying off any teachers next year while Dallas is trying to offload 400 while it gives campuses away to Edwin's supporter, Todd Williams.

This isn't Rick Perry's doing. This is the Citizen's Council constant delusions of grandeur and their boy insulting the public and teachers since he got in office. Belo and the Dallas oligarchy think teachers are shit. Edwin's their boy and he needs to be sent home. In fact, every chosen candidate by the Dallas pac handing out $10,000 needs to be vetoed by Dallas voters. Take their pac money and it's time to replace you.

I didn't read that Drake did anything other than send Flores an email. Implying that this teacher was removed from the classroom for making a point is the gist of the commentary. So, these folks are stretching the public/private thing, and using slanted language like "post" and "publish," in order to make Flores seem like a potential terrorist target? Huh.

A little creepy to watch the comments attacking Drake for having six kids and teaching for a living. Speaking for myself, maybe a little gratitude is in order to my own ancestors, who did not keep their family sizes down in order to have a higher standard of living. They didn't have access to birth control, of course, but infanticide was an option, and in light of the desperation of southern Italy in the late 1800's, perhaps the modern critics would look at that as an underutilized alternative. I hope that Mr. Drake keeps copies of all of these comments, so that his descendants can better understand the context of their existence. Also, please note that nobody can see the future, and "back in the day," for good or for ill, is closer than you think.

biscuit98, if you think these past 6 years under Dr. Hinojosa were not productive in DISD, then please explain thie enrollment and graduation numbers for the past 15 years that show a sudden and record breaking rise in the graduation rate that started in about 2006 and has continued through 2011. See http://schoolarchiveproject.bl... The chart at the bottom of that page shows the progress within DISD. The chart at the top of the page compares the DISD progress with that of every one of the other 12 large ISD's in Dallas County. Dallas ISD is the most improved, and was not the worst to start with either!

Take your rose-colored glasses off and take a hard look at the quality of a good many of the DISD teachers. They're no prize. Sure there's plenty of good ones and some great ones, but there are lot of really piss-poor ones teaching in DISD.

Deadwood? Really? You trust too easily my dear citizen. Unions are about fairness. Let's use the same unit of measure to decide who stays and who goes. This top down tyranny will only breed revolution, discontent and failure. To quote Shakespeare, " We are all punish-ed!"

Theoretically you are correct Titus. The TEA numbers should certainly be the most accurate based on the formula they use. It is the application of that formula that presents the multi-million dollar problem. First, the TEA numbers are exceptionally expensive, requiring the tracking of every student. Second, some of those doing the tracking are encouraged to lower graduation rates. Remember Houston ISD claiming dropout rates of 1%? Third, the CPI costs almost nothing, only the enrollment counts and a simple formula. If enrollment counts are amended, which TEA has done over time, then there are changes, but minimal.

The most critical advantage of the CPI is timliness. All 7 enrollment numbers used, and the number of diplomas granted, are less than a year old! It tells you what is happening in a school right now! In the TEA rate, three of the four numbers are over a year old. It is relatively old data. In this day and age of accountability we need to have the most timely data.

Theoretically you are correct. In practice the TEA number only works for those who want to have some control over the numbers. The CPI is for those who want the least manipulatable number, and also the most timely number. My web page on this topic, now 5 years old, is titled "Searching for an Accurate Student Dropout Estimate": http://www.studentmotivation.o...

What are graduation rate numbers use for? The main use is to compare year to year progress, or school to school differences. Since it cannot be as easily manipulated the CPI is the best. That is why it is used by researchers. It is slowly expanding in usage for all these reasons.

The best news is that all the graduation rate measurements show that DISD has made wonderful progress over the past 6 years. I presume you will not debate that. Yes, we have always had problems with questionable promotion of students. That is nothing new, but the total numbers are improving. We just need to work on academic achievement.

You write "Sorry, but no one else is calculating the numbers the way you do. No one."How about this report: http://www.edweek.org/apps/gma... I hope you are familiar with edweek.org. You need to become familiar with the Cumulative Promotion Index measurement. The CPI is more comonly used in research as it only requires enrollment and diploma counts which are hard to falsify. It does not rely on the "talents" of a coding clerk who can "code out" dropouts. I have heard principals call their coding clerk their most valuable dropout prevention tool. The CPI provides more immediate accountability without having to use data over a year old. It is more timely and predictive. Google "Cumulative Promotion Index," unless you are not really serious about knowing graduation rate patterns as quickly as possible, and trying to improve them.

Exactly right. I hear that a large number of teachers at one Dallas middle school was put on across-the-board growth plans for failing students. Imagine an entire school put on a "fix this or get out" warning because teachers dared to say that the student couldn't make the grade. The stress of that move alone is mind boggling, and functionally it is a catch-22. If you pass these students, you hurt them. If you fail them, you hurt them. It is not as if there are structures in place that allow for real mastery and remediation.

The statement that a "70 is code for 'really failed..." is accurate, and if the district were honest, which it certainly isn't, it would publish this in one of its slick fliers for parents.

Until the measurement system reflects reality, and people recognize the CPIs, CEIs, OHIs and all the rest of it for the nonsense it is, we can expect generations of children to suffer for it. How can a principal justify a move like this when the problem is system-wide and the numbers haven't added up, ever? I know, they're just following orders.

Back to the original stimulus for Mr. Drake's email: the 45-minute extension. Let's make it clear that the holy trinity is planning lessons, teaching them, and grading them. The 45-minute extension will be eaten up with the same draining bureaucratic nonsense that already squeezes the teacher to the point where most meaningful planning and grading is done outside the buildings, and outside the workday. Perhaps some accountability is in order there, and perhaps the district should be paying for time employees spend punching in grades, planning, and responding to administrative requests on evenings and weekends.

Michael, you're wrong. Every teacher will not have to reapply for a position. I am told from high source that the good ones at Bonham will be moved into Lee and a few other schools and they will replace the bad, deadwood at those schools. It is the bad deadwood, that will go to back of the line and no doubt be cut next time pink slips are handed out. DISD is using this opp as a chance to improve their staff.

Sorry, but no one else is calculating the numbers the way you do. No one.

And even if they were, the fact remains that thousands of DISD failing students are passed and promoted every year. Administrators change grades and teachers are interrogated for every grade they give below a 70.

3700 "convinces" teachers to pass failing kids by giving teachers a long list of hoops to jump through before a teacher can "fail" child (it's never the student's responsibility). Omit 1 step and your contract can be non-renewed. Or, says the district, just give the kid a 70 and we'll leave you alone.A 70 is code for "really failed, but I don't want to lose my job since the admin will probably just write me up and then change the kid's grade anyway."

We can have 100% graduation rates as long we just let them walk across a stage in a cap and gown regardless of their skills or grades. No big deal, right?

Mike, you need to google Cumulative Promotion Index. The CPI is among the most accurate graduation measurement DISD has, and the most timely and predictive. Yes, there are other problems in DISD, but this is one area we have moved forward. Be specific in your criticism of the graduation rate numbers. Do not use a shot gun! In critiquing data such generic criticism never helps the children! It is only useful in allowing you to hide your lack of understanding of graduation rates. On second thought, I take that back. It may demonstrate it.

Lord, Bill. Enough with your inaccurate grad rates. Your stats don't mean anything. The only thing productive at DISD in the last 6 years were construction companies spending billions of dollars in construction bond money, cronies and thieves. P-Card scandal, eRate scandal, travel expense scandal, financial meltdown of $64M resulting in the firing of 700 teachers, audit failures, failure to protect the taxpayers by properly accounting for and spending our money...and this doesn't count the prior superintendents in the pokey for embezzlement. Throughout it all the teachers tried to do their job with little to zero resources and an administration hostile to them.Now with State funding cuts there are school closures, incentives to resign, and mass firings. Every teacher in those closed schools will be sent to the reassignment pool and will have to reapply to the district. Edwin has always been this snide and hateful towards teachers privately, now you see his real personality. Garrett Boone and Todd Williams and the Chamber Education PAC have poured $25,000+ into Edwin's campaign before the filing date has even arrived...Edwin can be charming to those he wants money or favors from but you only have to look at his record as a Trustee....financial disasters and a vote to illegally extend his own term...sheesh!